Thursday, October 16, 2014

Hi

Just sayin' hi.

Random things:

1. Did you ever read the book The Red Tent?

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past. Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.

It's a made-for-TV, 2-part mini-series, being shown on Showcase in early December. Looking forward to watching it.

2. Have you ever read The Dovekeepers:

In 70 CE, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on a mountain in the Judean, desert, Masada. Only two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman weaves a spellbinding tale of four extraordinary bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom comes to Masada by a different path.

It's being made into a two-part made-for-TV mini-series (by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey for CBS) to be aired in Spring 2015. I'm looking forward to this one too.

3. I tried to make an appointment to donate blood this month. (On my list of things to do this fall.) But because I was in Puerto Vallarta in February, I won't be eligible to give until one year has passed. Apparently PV is a malaria zone. They also asked if I'd been to the UK (yes, I had. In 2010), specifically in Wales, Northern Ireland or Northern England (no, I hadn't).

4. I was successful in getting an appointment to get my tooth extracted. NOT looking forward to that. Oct 30. 3 pm.

I'm probably going to be a baby about it.

5. Today? On Facebook and Twitter? National Geographic was promoting BC as a place to visit!
I was so proud. Haha.

“More than a year ago, my husband and I yanked our two sons away from everything they knew and headed out to discover the planet,” says 40-year-old travel writer Heather Greenwood Davis. “The goal was to show our kids that their neighborhood wasn’t limited to their block, that the world has more to offer than PlayStation 3, and that people are way more interesting than they could imagine.”

From their home in Ontario, the Davis gang (father Ish, age 45, and boys Ethan, 10, and Cameron, 8) embarked on an epic adventure. They came face to face with blue-footed boobies in the Galápagos, watched World Cup rugby in New Zealand, went tuk-tuk riding in Cambodia, and encountered revolutionary times inEgypt. All told, the Davis family spent 12 months on the road, visited 29 countries, and blogged about their round-the-world journey at globetrottingmama.com.

“Our kids came away with a sense that the planet is a kind place, that the world is accessible to them, and that they can befriend people everywhere they go,” says Davis. "It was an amazing year.”